I am not a very technical person and fear that our two year old, Matthew, will soon outsmart me. So how I came to mention that I thought we should start blogging, and why on earth Colin thought I would be the best person to do it, is beyond me. I’ve also mentioned “twittering” and I fear the same outcome!
Well, as this is my first post, I guess I should tell you a bit about us. My name is Hari Fell, and myself and my husband, Colin, run the Tudor Farmhouse Hotel in the Royal Forest of Dean. We live on site and have a son, Matthew. Colin & I took over the running of the hotel from my parents, Owen & Eirwen, in December 2007 when Matthew was six months old. I had previously worked for my parents here prior to taking maternity leave. They bought the hotel in July 2003 and had moved back from Philadelphia, USA. I moved down from London to join them in their “retirement project”. Our move to the country was filmed for BBC 2′s Living the Dream. It was an interesting experience running a hotel for the first time and having cameras follow us. My mum and I were told off by the production team because we weren’t emotional enough and the film was a bit boring! In other words, we weren’t crying or shouting enough! I think they were disappointed that no major disaster befell us, but for our part we were just happy when the programme went out in February 2004 that the project had finished!
We have over the years had several other film crews to stay, including the team from To Buy or Not To Buy and a team from Optomen TV filming for a new cookery/lifestyle programme. Just last week, we had John Craven overnight. Meshell took the call for the booking and within minutes everyone in the hotel knew he was coming – she was sooo excited!
My aim for this blog is to let you see a bit about the life of the hotel (and all its characters), tell you a bit about our local suppliers and also about the area. I will be updating once a week. Until then, have a good week and enjoy the weather!
Colin, Hari & Matthew
